What constitutes a dive?

[Storker]

A dive should be planned and then executed. You determine where the dive will take place, the depth, the time, the exposure protection, the goal, the surface interval.

But it still might not qualify for logging. My last dive was planned and then executed according to plan. After a 40 minute training dive, I walked ashore, swapped tanks from my 15L/200bar to my 15L/300bar tank, changed the weights on my belt, walked into the water where my buddy was waiting, submerged to 2m, spent about 2 minutes checking that the amount of weight and the trim was acceptable and surfaced.

It was a planned dive, executed according to plan. I didn't log that dive, but I made a note in the log entry for the previous dive.

 

[corvettejoe]

the NAUI S&P's state that 20mins at 20feet or deeper constitutes as a dive.
I don't know what PADI or other agencies consider a dive though.

I have some dives where I've got 2.5hrs at less than 20ft...but I sure as heck count those LOL (shore diving, lobstering, etc)

I have others where I've done a full cave dive task that's less than 20mins, but I count those as well as I did a full "dive" completed some task I needed to do (pulling a line, picking up tanks, etc) and then did a full safety stop. The only time I won't count it is if it falls in the below category, in which case I will just add it to the previous/next dive if it's within a few mins of the surface interval.

I just use my judgement as to what I consider a dive and what I log. If it's something I had a false start on, or finished a dive and had to descend again for some reason and my dive computer split it up as another dive, I will just add it to the full dive I did in those cases.

 

[Basking Ridge Diver]

I agree with others on dives do not need to be long or successful to qualify. Let me give you my 2 cents.
My son and I went for a ocean cove dive up on the north shore of Rockport MA. It was his first ocean dive after his OW Certification. We had several issues - his 2nd stage regulator was leaking salt water into his mouth and we did not have enough weight to keep buoyancy in the water. I swapped regs with him and sure enough we ended up replacing the reg after the dive - boy was I feeling like a dope not believing him. We only got to 11 feet down and could not stay comfortably trim. We called the dive after 11 minutes of trying. The lessons I learned - 1) When your buddy has an issue you have an issue 2) bring spare weight to the ocean - you may need it 3) a lesson learned is worth logging the dive in my opinion - calling a dive is sometimes more difficult than ignoring your instincts - but dont do it. I use it to remind me that calling a dive (non-dive to some) is still a dive and you need to learn from each dive you attempt. I learned and I hope my son got a valuable lesson from that "short dive".
We did end up going back to Folly Cove on a separate occasion and he loved it - called it a "10" even though the vis was 8 ft. Did not matter to me - his "10" was my "10".

 

[dwiest12]

I log short dives if I take something away from it. What caused it to be a short dive and what can I do to make sure it does not happen again? It's a learning experience and I log the knowledge.

 

[DBailey]

If my dive buddy calls me up and says "Let's go diving", then my knee jerk reaction is that each dive will be 30 to 60 feet of average depth for about 45 minutes. The actual dive may vary, but that is my initial reaction and expectations. I also expect there will be at least two of those dive that day, but possibly up to four.

The different bodies of water just provide you with a more diverse skill set. It doesn't make you a better diver, but gives you experiences that you can apply to various situations.

 

[Subcooled]

What constitutes a dive? Is a day of diving considered a dive or is there another benchmark?

Are types of diving (lake, quarry, etc) regarded higher or lower for experience than others?

Thanks!!

This is a difficult question. A more relevant metric would be the time spent under water.

Some agencies, however, like to know the number of dives.

Usually this is obvious. You assemble the breathing apparatus, put it on, and dive. When you take it off the dive ends. If you then put on a new tank and dive again eg. after an our or two then a second dive begins. You may do a couple of dives per day. If you surface, float a few minutes, and dive back down, then the original dive continues.

It gets a little bit complicated with short dives: I once logged a 50 second dive and I DO think that it was a proper dive. This was an icedive with two hours of ice cutting, gearing up, dive planning, ... everything... and then a descent to 9m where my regulator started to free flow. I was unexperienced so I got a bit stressed and many unpleasant things happened and I learned a lot. Because I learned a lot and also because of the preparations, I counted this as a dive. Well... the ten pages of analysis in my logbook kind of hint that counting it as a dive was the correct thing to do.

If I explore a new shallow zero viz site, then I may do maybe five dives that are a couple minutes long and maybe ten feet deep. I count these dives as one dive. It is a (SCUBA) dive because it cannot be done on breath hold. The challenge, preparations, things learned, pages in logbook, ... it all hints that this should be counted as a dive. But not five though. The idea is not to dip yourself in a lake like a teabag in a mug.

If I dive under solid ice, then the dive may be only one to three feet deep, but it IS a dive. The ceiling acually makes it a pretty serious dive too. I have also done some pretty amazing dives that were almost two hours long but the maximum depth was ten feet. As I stayd submerged it was not swimming. It is obvious that it was a dive.

Only in extremely rare cases do I count as a dive anything that is shorter than 20 minutes. The only exceptions are some specific ice/cave dives.

So... what does constitute a dive? Answer: it's up to you, but it certainly is a dive if you have a lot to tell.